1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of printed literature and more specifically relates to an omniview contents display system.
2. Description of the Related Art
In our modern society, printed media is used extensively for communicating information between human beings of a targeted social group, class, or demographic. Printed media uses ink to mark a sheet of paper with alphabetic characters, the sheet of paper referred to as a page. Larger works of printed and bound media are referred to as books, magazines, or periodicals or the like. A book is a set or collection of written, printed, or illustrated sheets of paper that is usually bound or fastened together to hinge at one side. Books may refer to works of literature or may be used for reference. One common practice for magazines or books is the inclusion of a table of contents, usually within the first few pages of the book, that briefly describe the various sections or chapters of the book and the page numbers that those sections can be found on. Traditionally authors provide a table of contents to help readers navigate a lengthy work. Since the practice of binding books became common, a table of contents bound within the book has been practiced, but it has not significantly changed since that time.
The first real revolution in locating particular sections of written communication has been in electronic media using a search function, but with printed media, it still remains archaically provided. The process of locating a section of interest can be time consuming, typically requiring the reader to flip back and forth between pages or closing the book and then turning to the first few pages to access the table of contents. Larger books may also print an index in some form in the back of the book to make it easier for the reader, but flipping through pages to locate the table of contents is still necessary which is undesirable.
Reference books are often used to look up information that is found in only one section or chapter of the book. A reader will thumb through the first few pages of a book to locate the table of contents in order to find the section that the desired information may be found on. The reader then turns to that section of pages to continue the search. In some examples, such as when using the Bible, a table of contents is very inefficient because the reader often has only a small window of time to locate the desired section. The most efficient manner of locating particular books or sections of the Bible still remains the lengthy and time consuming method of memorization. Students who study for upper education classes often spend a good deal of time just turning pages to find a chapter or section that is already known to be there, but just has to be found. The time is past due for an innovation that will revolutionize finding particular sections of printed media.
Various attempts have been made to solve the above-mentioned problems such as those found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,789,187; 4,978,143; 6,244,628; 6,896,294; 5,802,516; and 5,761,485. This art is representative of location indicators and marking systems for books. None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the invention as claimed.
Ideally, a contents locating system should be easily seen and used and yet would be incorporated into a book or magazine cost effectively. Thus, a need exists for a reliable omniview contents display system to locate any section of a book at a glance and to avoid the above-mentioned problems.